The Cowboys currently have 11 picks in the upcoming 2014 Draft

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Awarded three compensatory draft picks for free agent losses a year ago, the Dallas Cowboys are going into the 2014 NFL Draft in May with 11 selections. This position has Jerry Jones thinking back to 1989, when he pulled the trigger on the trade that sent Hershel Walker to Minnesota and, ultimately, set the foundation for their early-90s dynasty.

“I've always wanted the draft picks,” Jones said from the Owners Meetings this week, per ESPN Dallas. “I will never forget when we traded Herschel Walker. I didn’t have one. I bet I had six NFL owners either call me or write me a note saying, ‘Do you realize how much you have increased your investment in this team? You are now paying two teams' drafts.’ At that time, that was very significant because you didn’t have free agency. The big money was the draft.”

The trade, which was criticized widely at the time, turned out to be one of the high points of Jones’s ownership thus far.

“So we literally for three years doubled our investment in players at that time,” Jones said. “And, by the way, my pockets were pretty empty because I had just bought the club [for a then-NFL record $140 million]. It was a strain. It was always something I looked at. I looked at it then and look at now was an opportunity to win and be better.”

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